Brett McKeachnie, Senior Director of Product Portfolio Management

I recently heard a Steven Covey quote that reminded me how important it is to prioritize and work on the right things: "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities."

Covey's book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," has left a profound mark on cultural thoughts surrounding personal development and productivity. Over 25 million copies have sold worldwide, inspiring millions to achieve their goals and live purposefully. If you've never read this book, I highly recommend it.

In this article, I want to explore Habit 3: Put First Things First. I believe this concept can help each of us as individuals and all of us as the Dx division. Covey taught his audience how to make the best use of the Eisenhower Matrix, the idea for which was credited to Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Eisenhower Matrix is a productivity, prioritization, and time-management framework designed to help you prioritize a list of tasks by first categorizing those items according to their urgency and importance. The Eisenhower matrix uses a four-quadrant approach.

Eisenhower considered tasks to be important or unimportant based on how soon they needed to be completed, but Covey looked at importance differently. Tasks fall into one of four categories based on whether they will produce desired results (or not), give extraordinary results (or not), and require immediate action (or not). 

Urgency is the core concept of Eisenhower's matrix, while Covey preferred to focus on importance rather than urgency. It's a business focus as opposed to a war focus. 

Personally, I prefer to address issues of high importance first. That being said, the urgencies of life often drag me, sometimes unwillingly, into the urgent realm. When that happens, I still try to focus on the most important urgent things first. 

One thing that's hard for me (and maybe for you, too) is to decide what's most important, regardless of urgency. Recently, I've become aware that my importance rating of some tasks has been a little off, so I'm grateful to colleagues who help me reevaluate and refocus my priorities.

In closing, I'd like to share a few quotes from Covey that have guided best practice for the most productive people in the world. I hope they leave you energized and excited to look deeply at your priorities and choose the right ones for any given time.

• "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."
• "Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important."
• "You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say no to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger yes burning inside. The enemy of the best is often the good."